When Steeples Cry: Leading Congregations Through Loss and Change

by Jaco J. Hamman

Overview

The majority of North American Protestant congregations and denominations, says Hamman, have experienced significant losses since the 1960s. Moreover, the dynamic and growing churches that are changing their traditions experience the loss of what was familiar to them. These losses, past and present, typically remain unnamed and unmourned. Familiar hymnals are replaced, congregations move into new buildings, pastors move on-without congregations adequately dealing with their emotions about such changes.

When Steeples Cry explores the diverse nature of loss occurring in North American church contexts: numerical, relationship, material, identity, functional, role, and systemic losses, and suggests how to grieve loss well and move on from it in healthy, life-giving ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780829816945
Publisher:	Pilgrim Press, The/United Church Press
Publication date:	05/28/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Product dimensions:	6.74(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	7
	Introduction	9
Chapter 1	Grieving is the gospel	23
Chapter 2	All the church's losses, all the church's griefs	46
Chapter 3	Conversation-as-the-work-of-mourning	73
Chapter 4	Communion-as-the-work-of-mourning	108
Chapter 5	Compassion-as-the-work-of-mourning	149
	Conclusion	175
	Notes	185